Hold sentence review board meetings periodically: HC to Delhi govt

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the AAP government to convene periodic meetings of the Sentence Review Board (SRB) which reviews jail terms awarded and makes recommendations for premature release in appropriate cases. A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar said "it is absolutely necessary" to hold the meetings periodically.

"Once in six months is not periodically," the court said, commenting on the prevalent practice of holding SRB meetings twice a year. It directed the city government to hold the meetings as per the Delhi Prison Rules and to take a decision in accordance with the law, rules, regulations, and policy being followed in such matters.

With the directions and observations, the bench disposed of a plea seeking holding of SRB meetings every three months. The plea by advocate Amit Sahni said as per the SRB order of July 16, 2004, and Delhi Prison Rules, 2018, the board shall meet at least once in a quarter to convene the meeting and pointed out that between October 2018 to October 2019, the board had convened only once on July 19 this year.

According to the SRB order and the prison rules, it shall be open to the chairman of the board to convene the meeting more frequently as may be deemed necessary, the petition has said.

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